Smoking: Not Just Harmful to Your Lungs and Heart

How Cigarettes Affect Nearly Every Part of Your Body

Cigarettes’ harmful claim to fame isn’t limited to your lungs or your heart. How does smoking hurt your body? Let us take a look at the ways cigarettes attack the body and you’ll have a better idea. Smoking not only cuts lives short, but greatly decreases quality of life as well.

Cancer

Most cigarettes contain over 4,000 chemicals, including “human-friendly” ones like cyanide and formaldehyde. Sixty of these chemicals are known to cause cancer. The list of smoking-related cancers keeps growing and includes:

Heart and Blood Vessels

Blood carries cigarette poisons throughout the circulatory system. Among other effects, these poisons damage and narrow blood vessels, increasing the heart rate while decreasing the flow of oxygen to the rest of the body. These are a few of the cardiovascular conditions smoking contributes to:

Digestive System

Smoking hurts the digestive system, which means the body doesn’t get the nutrients it needs. Smoking does this by:

Injuring the esophagus, allowing stomach acids to flow back (called
heartburn) into the esophagus, and by making stomach acids more harmful

Increasing acidity, increasing the risk for an infection that leads to open sores in the stomach or small intestine (called
peptic ulcers)

Leading to inflammation in the lining of the intestine (called
Crohn’s disease)

Changing the way the liver handles drugs and alcohol

Brain

Smokers notice the change in their brains almost the minute they light up. Smoking quickly changes brain chemistry, affecting mood and often leading to addiction. Brain chemistry changes, as well as decreased blood flow, increase the risk for:

And Now for the Good News

The benefits of quitting begin almost immediately. Heart rate drops within minutes. Circulation and breathing improve within months. And, among other improvements, your risk of
stroke
much lower after five years of quitting. Although it’s best to quit when you’re younger, you can benefit at
any
age.

References

Questions about smoking, tobacco, and health: is there a safe way to smoke? American Cancer Society website. Available at:
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED%5F10%5F2x%5FQuestions%5FAbout%5FSmoking%5FTobacco%5Fand%5FHealth.asp
. Accessed September 30, 2005.

Smoking: steps to help you break the habit. American Family Physicians. Family Doctor.org website. Available at: http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/common/addictions/tobacco/161.html. Updated December 2009. Accessed November 12, 2010.

Women and smoking: a report of the surgeon general—2001. CDC website. Available at:
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr/sgr%5Fforwomen/ataglance.htm
. Accessed September 30, 2005.

Revision Information

This content is reviewed regularly and is updated when new and relevant evidence is made available. This information is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with questions regarding a medical condition.

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